Originally written as a guest blog for CheerleadHER. What Should You Say? When I was sexually assaulted in 2012 I had an extremely difficult time trying to process what had happened. I had never heard any real-life stories of men as victims. And I had certainly never heard any real-life stories of a same-sex assault.... Continue Reading →

Welcome! This is the "pinned" blog post on this page, which I'll use to tell you about this website. I call this site "the Second Way project" partially because 2011-me thought he was being clever and mostly because I'm inspired by a quote that is (debatably) attributed to Albert Einstein. "There are two ways to... Continue Reading →

  When I first learned of the shooting, I panicked. Did I know anyone who was there that night? The likelihood seemed very high. Orlando had been a close-knit gay community for me, and we had all made our way to Pulse on Latin Night many times before. I had only moved from Florida a... Continue Reading →

(6.12.16) The first time I ever went to a gay bar I drove to one that was two hours away, hoping no one there would know who I was. I was, of course, still closeted. I sat inside this little dive bar across from a wall full of cardboard cutouts of rainbows and stapled-up flyers... Continue Reading →

In 2012 I was raped. Until a few months ago, I had only ever told three people. I wrote the draft of a blog post about it a few years ago, but couldn't bring myself to publish it. I think part of the reason it was so hard for me to talk about was because... Continue Reading →

My life seven years ago was very different from what it is now. For starters, of course, I was still closeted. At least one thing has remained true for me in all that time, though... I am a Grey's Anatomy loyalist. I love that show. And always, always will! Over the years, Grey's has done... Continue Reading →

Talking about race and privilege is hard for White people. Mostly, because we've never really needed to. There was no imminent risk we needed to prepare for based on how others would treat us due to our skin color. The choice to study the issue was completely voluntary. We could applaud ourselves when we chose... Continue Reading →

Multiple people in my life have committed and attempted suicide. Students, friends, family. At the age of ten I even saw someone I loved try to take their own life right in front of me. I cried and begged them not to, calling for help as I watched a bloody butcher knife cut the length... Continue Reading →

I'll be honest. For a moment, I was feeling a little cocky today. I checked out my blog statistics and realized that my eight total blog posts had received over 10,000 unique views from 11 different countries. I felt really proud that this little site with only a handful of posts ended up having such... Continue Reading →

Edie Windsor at NYC Pride June 30, 2013 Edie Windsor is the awe-inspiring 84-year-old woman from the now infamous “United States v. Windsor” Supreme Court case. I hope you were able to spend some time this week watching the celebrations of those most closely impacted by the rulings in the Prop 8 and DOMA cases. I... Continue Reading →